The Day the MLB Postseason Went Crazy

It seems that there’s no way baseball can keep this up, but baseball continues to keep it up — one great, closely played playoff game after another, virtuosic performance on virtuosic performance, October continuing to out-October itself with every evening’s crop of games. Thursday marked the end of the season for a pair of teams, and the playoffs will be less interesting without the manic implausibility of the Oakland Athletics and the metaphysical challenge of the suddenly and inexorably doomed Cincinnati Reds. But Thursday’s two most dramatic games ensured that fans won’t have much time to look back or even take a breather. The Baltimore Orioles outlasted the New York Yankees in a tense 13-inning staring contest to ensure a Game 5 in the Bron — good seats are still available, somehow — and the Washington Nationals walked off with a comeback against the St. Louis Cardinals to force their own Game 5.

Getty Images

Jayson Werth tries out for the U.S. Olympic long-jump team.

So, no, there isn’t much time to look back. There will be an entire offseason during which we can glory in the uncommonly steady exuberance with which the San Francisco Giants became the first team to successfully come back from a 2-0 deficit in a five-game series in the present 2-3 format. There will be, if we are lucky, another decade in which to admire the brilliance of Giants catcher Buster Posey, whose Game 5 grand slam sealed the win for the Giants. And Justin Verlander will pitch again for the Detroit Tigers in the American League Championship Series, which means that even if he can’t top the ruthlessly masterful complete-game shutout he threw to end Oakland’s dream season, we’ll get to spend some more of our October admiring the most dizzyingly dominant pitcher left in the playoffs.

But first, there’s the matter of the two remaining games that will decide the last two undecided series. There will be plenty of time to fret over A-Rod’s future or puzzle over the instant redemption of Jayson Werth, Washington’s walk-off hero Thursday, once things slow down somewhat. For the time being, there’s still some must-watch baseball to be watched. We’ll get to everything else when we get to it.

It’s the latter that Kevin Arnovitz, himself probably the best-known out sports journalist, found most encouraging as a template for athletes considering the same decision in the future. “Cruz’s announcement pivots the dialogue in an important way,” Arnovitz writes. “It changes the score just a little in the loud and proud versus hate and shame game. When we talk about it only after something hateful, gay people and their advocates fight a defensive battle. But when a guy comes out all on his own, it need not be a battle at all. We stop talking about words, and we start talking about people.”

* * *

There is the Internet you see, and then there is the Internet. For all the places that you may go to read about sports –it’s OK, we never expected this to be an exclusive relationship — it’s likely that none are quite as fervent, churning and well-trafficked as the myriad of message boards devoted to SEC football. It’s not just that SEC football is a way of life — or whatever the next rung up is from “way of life” on the spectrum of important things — in the South and many places other places besides. It is, but so are the message boards themselves. On those message boards, LSUFreek, who creates elaborate and stupendously goofy animated GIF art based around SEC celebrities like Nick Saban and Cam Newton that’s passed around like loopy samizdat, is something like royalty. In the real world, LSUfreek is Terrance Donnels, a nurse in New Orleans. But in the unreal world of the college-football Internet, he’s one of the best-known and best-loved artists working.

“Often the funniest things are those that tiptoe on the border of good taste,” Yahoo’s Les Carpenter writes. “And Freek has planted himself right on the line. There’s only so much you can do with the head of a football coach. Part of Donnels’ genius is that he lures football fans into the darkest corners he can imagine. There is certain fearlessness in his work that makes people uncomfortable.” LSUfreek may not be an artist you recognize from your Internet. The other Internet knows him very well.

* * *

Nicknames like “Beano” don’t usually accrue to people who are shy or retiring. So it was for Beano Cook, who was born Carroll Cook but was, during his long career in college football as an analyst of and advocate for the game, decidedly a Beano. Cook passed away on Thursday at the age of 81.

Cook was unmistakably a member of a more colorful generation — read this lively Sports Illustrated profile of Cook from 1982 and imagine anyone currently associated with college football being as frank or funny. But he remained an ambassador for the game even after he stopped being a regular television presence. College football has many voices and innumerable accents, of course. It’s an exponentially bigger game than it was when Cook was one of its foremost ambassadors as a commentator on ABC and ESPN. But fans can be forgiven for hearing Beano’s voice when they imagine the game at its least pretentious and most appealing.

Found a good column from the world of sports? Don’t keep it to yourself — write to us at dailyfixlinks@gmail.com and we’ll consider your find for inclusion in the Daily Fix. You can email David at droth11@gmail.com.

SPORTS, THE JOURNAL WAY

Be sure to check your Daily Fix all week long. The Fix's daily rundown of the best sportswriting on the Web is joined by features such as The Count, a look at the most revealing sports stats, as well as regular live reports of major sports events. Tell us what you think of the Fix at dailyfixlinks@gmail.com.

In baseball, there is a long-standing tradition of pro teams inviting college teams to play them in preseason exhibitions. A look at this odd tradition, and the awkward, no-win situations it creates for the pros.